


"...and then he said, 'What could go wrong?'"

by outsideth3box



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, Domestic, Established Relationship, M/M, earthside
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6359947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outsideth3box/pseuds/outsideth3box
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Rodney shepherd Madison to the community Easter Egg Hunt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"...and then he said, 'What could go wrong?'"

John pulled over at the first Timmy’s they encountered on their trip across town to Jeannie’s house. Rodney had already polished off the contents of the travel mug he brought with him from home, so circumstances were dire.

He climbed back into the driver’s seat, pushing a huge cup of dark roast into Rodney’s grabby hands and pulled back out onto the street, squinting in the early morning light.

“This is gonna suck,” Rodney grumbled.

“Rodney!” John said. 

“If I pick up Jeannie’s horrible cold, I’m going to choke her, I swear. Why would she drag us into her house, seething with mutated cold-germs and bacteria, and who knows what else?” John could hear the familiar diatribe revving up again.

“Rodney, you don’t really want Maddy to miss the Easter Egg Hunt, do you?” John asked as he navigated the second-to-last corner before Swan Street, where Jeannie and family lived. 

“Why not? It’s not as if there won’t be another next year. She’s probably already infected with all her mother’s germs and just can’t wait to pass them off to us. We’ll both be sick as dogs in a week. I can’t afford to be sick! I am in the middle of a HUGE research project at the university and if I miss days sniffling and sneezing and coughing my head off at home, the idiots I have working for me will blow the place up!” Rodney continued to rant as they pulled up to Jeannie’s house and he stomped up the stairs to the door.

After a couple of minutes waiting, the door opened about a foot and Maddy was shoved out onto the stoop. 

Jeannie’s raspy voice croaked through the opening, “I’b goig back do bed. Dod cub back for ad leas doo hours!” Then she degenerated into a muffled hacking cough.

“Oh my god!” squeaked Rodney. “Don’t breathe on us! Close the door! Close the door! You’re letting all your germs out!” He pulled his collar over his mouth and nose. Jeannie just made a disgusted noise and slammed the door shut. 

At that point Rodney noticed that Maddy was bouncing on her six-year-old toes and yanking on John’s sleeve. “Unca John, c’mon, hurry, we gotta get to the Easter egg hunt before everybody finds them all and there are none left for meeee!”

“Don’t worry, Mads,” John said. “It hasn’t even started yet. We’ll get there in plenty of time.”

‘Oh god,” Rodney said. “This is going to be a disaster.”

“What disaster?” John asked. “We’re taking our niece to the community center for an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning. We’ll both be with her, what could go wrong?”

Rodney let out a piteous moan and slammed back the last of his coffee.

**

They ended up having to park two blocks down the street from the community center, since, it seemed, lots of other people had had the same idea and arrived early. John had a time reigning in Maddy’s excitement enough to get her to walk with them rather than run ahead. She pulled with all her tiny might on John’s hand, yelling, “I know where it is, Unca John!”

Just managing to make it inside before Maddy completely lost it, John and Rodney signed Maddy up for the hunt, both of them signing on as her adult supervision and signing waivers to the effect that they were responsible for her safety and well-being. Once they walked out the back doors into the huge expanse of garden, John loosened his grip and Maddy was off like a shot, running to join the gaggle of youngsters gathered near a fountain.

John stood off to the side, watching as the moderators passed out baskets to the clamoring kids and explained the rules. He could hear Maddy’s voice through the noise yelling, “Let’s go!”

Then one of the moderators blew a whistle and the kids were off in all directions, all bent over scouring the ground for hidden eggs.

Rodney walked up to him with a fresh cup of coffee he’d gotten only god knows where, and said under his breath, “Keep an eye on that one over there, he looks squirrelly to me.”

“What?” John asked. “Rodney, he’s one of the parents of that little boy over there in the green overalls. The mother is standing right beside him.”

Rodney rolled his eyes and said, “Do you really think being a parent keeps him from being a scumbag?”

“Well,” said John. “Let’s not think about scumbags and just watch Maddy having fun. Look at her over there by the fountain, she’s having a great time.”

Maddy did look like she was having the time of her young life, clutching her basket in one little fist while using the other hand to brush aside clumps of grass. 

“I found one!” Maddy shrieked, and held up her purple and blue prize. John and Rodney clapped and whistled their encouragement.

They never took their eyes off Maddy as she searched and laughed and yelled like crazy whenever she found an egg. There were children all around the garden hollering and laughing over their treasure. At the two hour mark the moderator blew her whistle again and called the children together to show off their finds. 

John and Rodney strolled over to the group to gather Madison to head for home. She held up her basket of brightly colored eggs proudly and gushed, “That was so fun Unca Mer! I found a million eggs, look!”

Rodney peered into the basket, dazzled by the crazy colors, and said, “Yep, a million eggs, no doubt about it.” Maddy beamed.

She nodded off in the car on the way home, worn out from all the excitement. And once they had dropped her off again, standing on the stoop while Jeanie coughed out a thank you and closed the door, Rodney let out a sigh.

“What is that about?” asked John.

“Well, nothing awful happened. I thought surely you’d jinxed us by asking what could go wrong,” Rodney said. Then he sneezed. And sneezed again. And again. He looked up and glared viciously at John. 

And John sneezed.

 

end


End file.
